The Lord of the Seas - An Isekai Progression Fantasy [ Currently on Volume 2 ]

Lukas could not move, his body frozen, breath shallow as Valkari lowered her arm that was drenched in crimson. He could not even a scream.

There wasn't a flicker of remorse in the dragonborn's expression. No guilt. No regret.

The hate in her eyes were apparent.

Valkari simply stood there, hand bloodied, eyes steady, as if she hadn't just murdered a child in cold blood. A sudden, violent burst of magic surged through the air. The spell ignited from Valkari's core, flames ripping into the ground where the boy had fallen.

The temperature snapped upward in an instant, the air turning sharp and dry as everything within the blast radius burned.

The child's body vanished. Not slowly. Not with time. But in the blink of an eye, turning into ash.

Lukas felt the Robes of the Lord flair to life as the flames licked against his skin, immune to the intense heat that Valkari had summoned through the Divinity of the Flames. He was too stunned to speak, too stunned to act; by the time he looked down, there was nothing left. Not even the toy boat that the boy had held onto in his little hands.

Just scorched stone and smoke curling into the sky.

His eyes locked with hers.

"Valkari...what have you done…?" Lukas breathed.

"He saw us." She repeated, as if the answer was obvious. As if Lukas was the crazy one.

The dragons stirred restlessly behind them. They were still connected to him through the Crown. They felt his horror, his shock and confusion. A pulse of fear now rippled through the caged beasts like lightning through a storm. Lukas could feel it—the panic brewing within his people. Whispers of his presence echoed across the shared link through the Crown, but now they were tangled with dread.

Then came the noise of boots, metal scraping against stone.

Voices—slurred, low, but coming closer.

The guards.

Something must have gotten their attention because they were headed right their way. Likely the dragons.

Lukas didn't hesitate this time. He summoned water to wash away the blood that stained his own hands but quickly realized that the blood on Valkari's hands still remained. It glittered dark and sticky across her arms and chest. But it was too late to use his magic so he lunged forward, pulling off his coat and wrapping it around her in one smooth motion; shielding her body as he yanked the hood over her head.

"Do not speak," Lukas muttered through clenched teeth. "Do not move. Not even for a second."

Five men rounded the corner. Lanterns swung lazily from their belts, casting long shadows across the cages and crates.

The guards staggered slightly as they walked, half-drunk, armed but barely alert. One of them squinted, eyeing the two cloaked figures.

"Who the hell's out here?" he barked. "This area's restricted."

Lukas straightened to his full height, standing tall.

The men paused. Even drunk, they weren't stupid enough to draw their weapons without hesitation. Not to mention, Lukas was a very large man, his broad shoulders and imposing frame enough to make them hesitate. Their hands hovered near their weapons, but none of them drew them from their sheaths.

"Didn't realize you had patrols this late," Lukas explained, voice low but steady. "We...we got turned around. This area looked the same as the other storage yards."

The leader of the group narrowed his eyes, trying to piece together whether this was someone he should recognize. "That so? Can I ask who are you, exactly?"

Lukas didn't answer immediately. Hundreds of thoughts, waves of conflicting emotions were running through his mind. He was still reeling from what had just happened minutes ago. His body moved before his mind could catch up, instinct guiding him as he used his massive frame to shield Valkari from the drunken men.

His coat still draped around her, hiding the blood, the claws and the truth of the crime she had just committed. Lukas didn't know what the hell they were going to do if someone noticed that because if they did see the blood...then they'd quite literally be caught red-handed.

Still, Lukas had no answer for the guards.

One of the men narrowed his eyes. "Hey—"

But before he could finish, another voice cut in. "What on Hiraeth is going on over here?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

A man pushed through the cluster with a casual grunt, parting the group with little more than the weight of his steps.

Lukas blinked once. Then he blinked twice, just to make sure he wasn't imagining things. Standing there in front of him was...the Archmage Varian, holding two bottles of rum—one in each hand.

Varian seemed to have been drinking with these guards which would explain why they were a bit tipsy.

Why a legendary Archmage of the Tower would be drinking with these guards, Lukas did not have a clue.

The old man froze, however, when his eyes finally found Lukas.

The Archmage glanced at him, then behind at Valkari, then back to the group of guards.

Lukas didn't know whether to feel relieved or even more dread now that Varian was here.

For all he knew, the Archmage was about to rat them both out—throw them to the wolves just because he felt like it. He may even do so on accident in his drunken stupor, even if he did not mean to.

Lukas knew damn well that the only reason Varian had been nursing his people back to health was because it meant access to dragon ingredients of the highest quality. Not because he truly cared for them, at least it didn't seem to be that way.

For a long, tense moment, Varian just stared at him, his face unreadable. Then, without warning, the Archmage stepped forward and smacked the nearest drunk across the face with the flat of his hand. It was a hard slap, one that made the other guards flinch.

"Oi!" the guard Varian had slapped shouted, stumbling back. "What the bloody hell was that for?"

Varian pointed his rum bottle in Valkari's direction.

"That's the damn princess of Easthaven, you dumb fool."

What followed was silence. Total silence. The men looked at each other, at the figure wrapped in Lukas' coat, red hair peeking out from under the hood. And then, Lukas understood. Her bright red hair, just as bright as Rosalia's, was the only discernible trait of Valkari's that they could see.

One of them blinked. "That's...her?"

"Yes that's her you idiot," Varian shot back, now sounding annoyed. "You planning to interrogate her next? Maybe ransack her pockets while you're at it?"

"N-No, sir," one of the others mumbled, suddenly standing a little straighter.

"You see that brute beside her?" Varian jabbed a thumb toward Lukas. "That's her personal bodyguard. The Head mage's Apprentice. I hear he's killed a man with a rusty spoon in a magician's duel."

Lukas didn't even try to correct him.

The guards looked appropriately horrified.

The moment Varian's words left his mouth, the drunkards dropped to their knees like dominos. One of them started to offer some kind of apology, but Varian just rolled his eyes as if it had been the most obvious thing in the world. Their sluggish minds might have been fogged with liquor, but even they knew what it meant to be in the presence of royalty—or at least who they believed was royalty.

They bowed low, murmuring apologies, praise, and titles; their heads down and eyes averting their gaze.

None of them had ever actually seen Rosalia Elarion before.

If they had, they might have realized that Valkari looked older, taller, far too different from her.

But that didn't matter.

Varian had just handed them a lifeline, and Lukas grabbed onto it with both hands.

"Enjoy," Varian said with a sigh, handing over the two bottles of rum as if awarding the men medals. "But don't drink yourselves blind. I'm escorting the Princess back to her ship. It's getting late."

One of the men dared a whisper, "She actually looks older than I thou-"

Lukas tensed but the guard didn't get to finish before the man beside him smacked him on the back of the head. "Shut up," he hissed, "You wanna lose your tongue?"

Varian didn't look back.

Neither did Lukas.

They walked quickly, the Archmage taking point while Lukas kept to Valkari's side, his arm steady on her shoulder, guiding her with quiet urgency.

Valkari remained silent the entire way, her head down, her eyes hidden beneath the hood.

Lukas could still feel the tension in her shoulders. His thoughts were spinning, still trying to catch up with the sheer speed of what had just unfolded.

The boy.

The ash, all that remained of him.

The blood that had stained his hands, that had now dried on Valkari's.

Lukas still hadn't come to terms with it, hadn't even begun to unravel the horror of it.

But he did know one thing.

They would've been in deep shit if not for Varian.

When they were far enough from the clearing in which his people were held, the streets quieter now under the cover of late night, Lukas finally spoke.

"Why?" His voice was low. Raw. "Why do you keep helping us? You don't owe us anything."

Varian didn't answer right away. He let the question hang in the air for a moment before chuckling, as if amused by something Lukas couldn't yet see.

"I know you have questions," he whispered. "A lot of them. And I'll answer them. But not here. Not in this city. Not now."

Lukas nodded, he understood. In the heart of this empire, who knew the number of unwanted eyes and ears there were; hidden in the shadows? It was not the time or place for such a conversation. But in that moment, even with his questions unanswered, Lukas finally saw the truth in the letter that Magnus had written him just before they had left for Nozar; the letter telling him that the Magic Tower's Representative would be travelling with them for the Celebration.

Even if Varian was sponsored by the Church, Magnus trusted Varian. And Lukas was beginning to think that he could too. Not everything about the Archmage made sense. Not completely. But Varian was someone Lukas could possibly rely on. And in a place like Nozar, that meant everything.

Despite the horrors that he had witnessed, at the very least there was a silver lining in the darkness of the night and that silver lining was the man they call the Master of Potions.